My desktop is on the net – Is yours? I'm talking about 'social bookmarking.' What is social bookmarking? Waters (2010) describes social bookmarking as a communication method that allows individuals to store, organize, search and manage bookmarks of web pages on the internet and share those bookmarks with others.
The more pertinent question is - how is the social bookmarking phenomenon relevant to us as PR practitioners? Some benefits of social bookmarking include: Ability to ascertain if people are bookmarking our organization's website or news related to our organization, and the numbers of people doing so. This reflects our visibility as well as brand loyalty and recall, and ultimately whether people are interested in our organization. Second, the types of tags people use to label our organization help in gauging public perception of our organization – do we have a favorable image? What can we do better? After running a campaign we can re-evaluate public bookmarks to determine if corporate image has improved.
Rule of thumb before embarking on a PR campaign - conduct research to effectively tailor your message to your target audience. So, I propose a fun, interactive exercise to better understand public tagging behavior. My question- How do you usually decide what kinds of tags to use? How do you classify tags? I’d like to hear from you.
I’ll get the ball rolling - I usually classify tags based on (1) topic or content and (2) field or genre. Using a standard set of keywords (e.g. Travel) helps me instantly recall the content. Also, by categorizing material, I can go back to it later, make connections and track story/issue developments. For example, for an article relating to touring the Grand Canyon, my tag would be 'Travel' and 'Grand Canyon.' Your turn now! : )
Public tagging behavior:
Q: How do you usually decide what kinds of tags to use?
Tags which:
(1) relate to the topic or content (e.g. Dieting Tips, Pierce Brosnan)
(2) relate to a specific field or genre (e.g. Health, Entertainment)
(3) indicate the author of the material (e.g. Waters, 2010)
(4) reflect my feelings or personal opinion towards the material (e.g. Funny, Interesting)
(5) indicate a follow-up task (e.g. For Work, For Shopping)
(6) indicate material relating to someone else (e.g. For dad, Tim’s class project)
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Very interesting connection to the field of PR!
ReplyDeleteI was first introduced to the social bookmarking phenomenon last semester....it is truly a wonderful tool! To answer your question, I typically use connections that will quickly aid in recalling what I was working on by using either topic/content or specific field/genre tags.
Heather - Thanks for sharing your tagging habits! : ) I agree, definitely an easy and convenient way of creating tags. Hopefully there will be more large-scale research done on public tagging habits to help PR Practitioners effectively utilize the social bookmarking medium. Keep a look out for my blog every week. And do take the online poll at the top of the page. : )
ReplyDeleteI like your interactive style of blogging! I also absolutely love the idea of researching public tagging habits. To answer your question- I usually tag using topics/keywords. I also tag according to different purposes of use. For example, a TED short talk on gaming can be tagged as "game research" for my intern projects; it can also be tagged as "speech" for my public speaking teaching ideas.
ReplyDeleteJean - Thanks for sharing your tagging habits. : ) Come to think of it, I do sometimes also create tags based on follow-up items or purposes, like you do...but tend to stick mostly to topic/content tags. There is definitely much utility to conducting large-scale research on public tagging habits to enable PR Practitioners to make the most of this social bookmarking medium. : )
ReplyDeleteI've never tagged before but I should start- I see how this could be useful... specifically, for researching how others perceive your organization.
ReplyDeleteI generally tag based on points 1 & 2 in your list but 3 & 4 can be very interesting. For PR research tagging based on what people think, feel about something can convey valuable information.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the list!
Yes Eileen, I too recently realized the value of monitoring public tagging behavior...amazing how a simple act like this can uncover several useful insights for an organization! : )
ReplyDeleteParomita - Thanks for sharing your tagging habits. : ) Looks like most of us tag based on topic/content. Hmm...I'm going to be more adventurous now and explore new and more creative ways of tagging.
ReplyDeleteAnybody has a clue, which social bookmarking sites should be preferred for optimal promotion?
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Thanks for your question Neil. I've heard Digg.com, Del.icio.us and Reddit.com are good for this.
ReplyDeleteExcellent post. I hope many people will get advantage from this post.Self Book publishers.
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